Episode Information

Review

Franklin and Marcus meet with the resistance leaders on Mars; Delenn
learns about strife on her homeworld.

On Mars, Franklin and Marcus are still cooling their heels, waiting
for the resistance leaders to arrive for the meeting. The situation
is desperate for the resistance: Earth Force is very steadily
retaking land and quashing the resistance. Some resistance fighters
are ready to take more drastic measures, as the hotel Franklin and
Marcus were staying at is bombed, and civilians are killed. Number
One is furious at the unauthorized bombing, but she realizes the
situation is getting too desperate for her to keep control over.

When the meeting finally starts, Franklin takes the lead, giving
Sheridan's offer of an alliance to overturn President Clark. He says
that Sheridan needs them to be prepared to carry out his orders, but
at least the fight will be coordinated and not senseless - as bombing
civilians would be. Franklin says Sheridan orders them to stop
bombing civilians. Finally, Franklin says that Sheridan promises that
Mars will be free once Clark is overthrown. One of the resistance
leaders scoffs at Sheridan's apparently ability to do anything, which
leads to a great retort by Franklin: if Sheridan said he was going to
grow wings and fly to New York City, Franklin would just ask him to
stop off for some bagels on the way. Franklin clearly has no problem
using Sheridan's new mystique to his advantage.

Frankly, I think the terms of Sheridan's alliance are pretty one-sided
(in that Sheridan's calling the shots), but the Mars resistance really
doesn't have any other hope, so they agree. Number One later calls
Franklin on the improvisation of adding the restriction on bombings
(since Sheridan couldn't have known about it), but she's smart enough
to appreciate the support when it doesn't undermine her. Furthermore,
she invites Franklin (only) to dinner, and we eavesdrop later on more
romance between them.

Back on B5, news has been coming in about random attacks by an unknown
race on many border planets. Forell, a Minbari visiting Delenn, says
that even some minor Minbari allies have been attacked, and the
Warrior Caste has not deigned to protect them. Delenn takes a small
fleet of White Star ships to investigate the takes, along with
Lennier and Forell.

While Delenn is gone, Sheridan hardly knows what to do with himself.
He's getting madder and madder about Clark's propaganda on ISN, and he
finally comes up with a way to counteract it. He wakes up Ivanova in
the middle of the night to announce that he's going to turn the war
room into a broadcast center. She's going to be the Voice of the
Resistance, sending out messages with true information about Clark's
policies and military actions. Ivanova is just thrilled.

While Delenn's fleet in en route, Forell tells her more about the
conflict between the castes. The disbanding of the Grey Council has
let their society gradually fall apart. The Warrior Caste in
particular seems to be pushing this, although our view may be biased
since we're getting the news through the Religious Caste. In one
polar city, the Warrior Caste forced all members of the Religious
Caste out of the city, where most perished in the poor conditions
before they could reach another city. The victims included Forell's
family. Delenn is shocked and saddened that the situation has gotten
so bad.

When the fleet arrives at the site of an attack, they find unknown
ships attacking a Pak'ma'ra ship. When Delenn orders Lennier to
contact the unknown ships, the responding message is in Minbari -
apparently they have some knowledge of the Minbari. Before Delenn and
Lennier have a chance to absorb this fact, Forell pulls a gun on
Delenn, saying that she must listen to what the Drakh have to say.

A Drakh shuttle docks, and a Drakh visits the bridge. Forell explains
that the Drakh are willing to ally with the Religious Caste, and that
such an alliance - even unused - would even the odds with the Warrior
Caste and force them to negotiate. Forell says that Drakh are only
looking for some minor worlds to settle, and Delenn realizes that this
is because they have recently lost their home - Z'ha'dum (in "Epiphanies").

Delenn pretends to be considering the alliance, and tells the Drakh
she will return with an answer in seven days. Her ruse is working,
until Forell speaks Delenn's name. A Shadow ally couldn't help but
know about Delenn's reputation, and the Drakh recognizes her. Delenn
knows they will attack as soon as it is safe to do so, and she comes
up with a clever maneuver to use the Drakh mothership as protection
until they are moving fast enough to use their jump points. The
protection is not sufficient, and one White Star ship is
destroyed and the others suffer heavy damage. They make their getaway
safely, but Forell is fatally injured.

Delenn refuses to allow the Drakh ships to get away with their success
and information, and so she immediately orders an attack from all
sides. With the advantage of surprise, the remaining White
Star ships destroy the Drakh ships. They return to B5.

Upon her return, Delenn can't hide the truth about the castes from
Sheridan, and says that she must return to Minbar for awhile to try to
stop the impending civil war. She turns philosophical for a bit,
saying that it may be good for her to be away for awhile, because then
Sheridan doesn't have to worry about reining in his dangerousness when
she's not around.

Let me comment on the Mars part of the plot first. As I said, I don't
think the Mars resistance leaders had much choice in agreeing to
Sheridan's alliance, but it's going to be very difficult to get it to
work. The communications problems between B5 and Mars, in particular,
would seem to make it extremely difficult to coordinate any kind of
plan. Does Sheridan actually have any plans in mind yet, or is he
just trying to get all his forces in order? And how does Sheridan
expect to be able to guarantee Mars' freedom when they win? Even if
President Clark is overthrown, there's no guarantee that his successor
will be any kinder in his view toward Mars. If Sheridan uses force
for his guarantee, then he's being hypocritical in his campaign
against Clark. I suppose he figures it's a problem for another
day.

I've been watching this episode and the previous few relatively
carefully to notice just why it is that Number One regards Franklin so
strongly in the role of leader of the embassy, with Marcus just as an
aide that can stand guard duty. I think Franklin's analysis of the
Keeper's remains in "Racing Mars" was
the starting point, but the key was in this episode. Franklin spoke
confidently and persuasively to the resistance leaders, even
improvising to support Number One. Meanwhile, Marcus was chiming in
with helpful backup, but he didn't really have the "lead", so to
speak. It's nice to see Franklin get a bit of romance when both he
and his lover are not drugged up (unlike last season in "Walkabout" or season 2 in "The Long Dark").

The real meat in this episode is the discovery of the Drakh and the
collapse of Minbari society. The Shadows' former allies have
certainly been busy - are the Drakh the same race that have gone to
Centauri Prime and placed the Keeper on the Regent (in "Epiphanies"? Presumably the Drakh have
ambitions to become what the Shadows were. The presentation of the
Drakh in the episode was so-so: the costume and voice seemed suitably
eerie, but the out-of-focus look just didn't work.

Delenn was really back in action here in a way we haven't seen for
quite awhile. She was quick to analyze the situation between the
castes and with the Drakh, and I think she's learned a bit of
Sheridan's talent for improvisational attacks. Her return attack to
wipe out the Drakh was unexpected, and I have to wonder how it fits in
with Delenn's philosophy that every life is valuable. They are
valuable until they attack her? I suppose it's only realistic to say
that there are some times that you will have to take lives, but she
seemed rather vengeful here.

The collapse of the caste system seemed rather sudden. After all,
Delenn broke the Grey Council way back last season in "Severed Dreams". I suppose things
have been gradually falling apart, but it still seems a bit contrived.
We know the Warrior Caste didn't help in the Shadow war, but did they
perhaps hold off on making trouble until the war was over? That would
explain things a bit. But why didn't Delenn hear any hints of trouble
when she was recently on her homeworld for the events in "Atonement"?

I also have some trouble believe the extreme measures that the Warrior
Caste is already taking against the other castes. After all, the
castes have worked together since the time of Valen, so people should
know each other. How can you just kick someone you know out into the
arctic cold, just because they are in another caste? The act described
(kicking the Religious Caste out of the city) just baffles me overall,
because I can't imagine what it's supposed to accomplish except to
anger the other castes. Well, now Delenn is turning her formidable
attentions to the problem, so I'm sure she'll figure something out.